Blog of the teachers and students at Bilingual IES Clara Campoamor

Hot Dog Eating Contest

In English Plus, the book we use with Primero F and E, there is a page that gives short descriptions of holidays such as St. Patrick’s Day, Hot Dog Day, and Car-Free Day. Given our attention towards different holidays throughout the year, I thought I would focus on the one that caught the interest of the students and is a little more, well, offbeat.

Every year on July 4th, America’s Independence Day, Nathan’s (an American hot dog chain) hosts its Hot Dog Eating Contest, in which competitors try to eat the highest number of hot dogs within a timed frame. Competitive eating is a popular “sport” in America, and this contest is the most famous. This event is held in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City, is attended by the mayor, and watched by a couple million people nationwide. For a number of years, the contest was won by a thin, athletic Japanese man named Takeru Kobayashi, who brought a lot of attention to the contest. The current champion is Joey “Jaws” chestnut, who ate 68 hot dogs in 12 minutes. Here is a video about the contest: